Art and theater reviews covering Seattle to Olympia, Washington, with other art, literature and personal commentary.
If you want to ask a question about any of the shows reviewed here please email the producing venue (theater or gallery) or email me at alec@alecclayton.com. If you post questions in the comment section the answer might get lost.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

left to right: Micheal O'Hara as Christopher Marlowe and Rodman Bolek as Will Shakespeare

Nobody writes like Tom Stoppard —
except perhaps William Shakespeare. And when Stoppard does his take on
Shakespeare, the result is comedy that is brilliant and hilarious. Witness “Shakespeare in Love” by Stoppard, Lee Hall and Marc Norman.
You’ve rolled in the aisle laughing at the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola de Lesseps and Joseph
Fiennes as Shakespeare. Now you must see the live stage version presented
by Tacoma Arts Live and starring Victoria Ashley and Rodman Bolek.

Will Shakespeare (Bolek) has agreed to write two different
plays for two different patrons, but he is broke and struggling with a huge
case of writer’s block. To the rescue comes fellow playwright Christopher
Marlowe (Micheal O’Hara) who feeds him lines and an almost complete synopsis of
a play to be called “Romeo
and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter.” He meets
and is immediately smitten with Viola (Ashley), the beautiful daughter of a
wealthy merchant. In an insanely funny parody on the famous balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet,” Will tries to win
Viola’s love with poetry, but he is stymied trying to think of beautiful words
so Marlowe, hiding beneath the balcony, feeds him lines a la Cyrano de Bergerac.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s poetry, Viola – who is already
a theater aficionado – becomes determined to act in his new play and auditions
disguised as a man – because in Elizabethan England it was illegal for women to
be actors.

Ashley and Bolek light up the stage with their acting. Their
chemistry is palpable.

Bolek plays Shakespeare as lovably bumbling, while
portraying his love for Viola with sincerity and passion. His physical comedy
in fight scenes, along with that of the large supporting cast, is worthy of the
Marx Brothers times about a dozen – aided by the scope of the large proscenium stage
and the tall balcony, which gives the actors ample room to run about wildly
(credit must be paid to choreographer Eric Clausell, fight coordinator Geoffrey
Alm and director Chris Nardine).

Viola’s passion and distress and sometimes confusion is
written all over Ashley’s face, and when she appears disguised as a man, she is
a wholly different character. I actually double-checked the program to make
sure there were not two actors in her roles.

The play Shakespeare’s actors rehearse and ultimately
perform for the Queen (Kathryn Grace Philbrook, who is perfectly majestic and
loveable) is, of course, a bowdlerized version of “Romeo and Juliet” with Viola playing
the part of Romeo. The rehearsal scenes are farcical, especially when
Shakespeare tries to direct the kiss between Romeo and Juliet, but when they
perform for the queen, the love between the two and the tragic final scene are
as beautiful and touching as the original.

Rachel Fitzgerald turns in a stunning
comic role as the nurse. Her double takes and shocked expressions when coming
unexpectedly upon people she did not expect to find (such as Will Shakespeare
in Viola’s bed) are spectacular. The rest of the supporting cast is also
outstanding. Kudo’s to O’Hara, Spencer Funk as the detestable Wessex, Steve
Tarry (outstanding in drag), Lukas Amundson as the incompetent actor Wabash,
and Brian Tyrrell as Fennyman.

America’s favorite cult classic musical, The Rocky Horror Show, is rocking the
stage at Auburn Avenue Theater. Since the early 1970s, audiences have been
showing up in droves for stage and screen versions of Rocky Horror,
often in costume and prepared to open umbrellas, throw rice and shout lines at
the actors. The show itself parodies such characters as Frankenstein and Dracula
and makes fun of bad horror movies in general as nerdy couple Brad (Hunter Roy)
and Janet (Cami Werden) knock on the door of a dark and threatening castle and
are welcomed by the outrageous transvestite Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Jordan Melin).

In Frank N Furter’s creepy home,
Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker
and a creepy butler. “With a bit of a mind flip; You're into the time slip; And
nothing can ever be the same…”). From there on it is all campy rock and
roll and sexy humor.

The
Auburn Community Players’ production is directed by Chris Serface, longtime musical theater actor and director
and Artistic Director of Tacoma Musical Playhouse. “Rocky Horror has
always been a favorite of mine from the first time I saw it when I was in high
school,” Serface says. “I've now been privileged enough to have acted in it and
directed it before and have always had a blast. This time around has been even
more fun. The creative team and cast have put their heart into this project,
and it shows. Rocky is sometimes overlooked as a serious show because of
its cult status. The message of acceptance, individuality, and love is clear
when you listen to the lyrics and text.”

Serface
says, “I'm a Rocky purist and love the vision that Richard O'Brien
created with this show. Come dressed up and ready to talk back to the show,
because the audience is truly a part of the story.”

Brynne Geiszler plays Magenta, the maid. Geiszler has a BFA in Theater from
Cornish College of the Arts. You can see her next in Broadway Olympia’s
production of Songs For A New World this November.
Geizler says, “Rocky has always had a special place in
my heart. This is my fourth time performing in Rocky and each time the
experience has been unique in its own way. This is my second time playing
Magenta and I continue to learn new things about the character and show. I
think the show itself is amazing because at its core when you strip away the
camp and the sex, it's about being unabashedly true to yourself. But of course
why would we want to strip away the camp and the sex, it's the best part! This
cast has been incredible to work with. We've become a tight knit family and I
am floored every day that I get to share the stage with these talented people.”

Melin says playing Frank N Furter is “an
absolutely blast. The show makes you transcend onto another level you never
thought possible. There is not another show I know of that allows and expects
the audience to take such a huge part of it by yelling some of the most obscene
comments, and we as a cast relish in them. It heightens the experience for all
of us and creates a sort of freaky-bond.” Melin has performed in many theaters
in the Pacific Northwest and has toured throughout the state and in England.

Audience participation kits
will be available for purchase at the performance. There will be no outside
participation items allowed in the auditorium.

Well over 100 years later, a majority of the world’s
landscape painters still paint in an Impressionist style. As if landscape art
has not advanced — which it has — since the
1880s.

The
French Impressionists — Renoir, Degas and
their contemporaries — were considered radical when they were
painting. Their art flew in the face of everything that had been considered
sacrosanct in art since the Renaissance 400 years earlier. They dared to paint
common people and commonplace scenes, and didn’t even pretend to hide their brushstrokes.
The establishment considered their art to be crude and childlike and definitely
not museum-worthy.

Tacoma
Art Museum offers a fresh look at the French Impressionists and at American
Impressionists from right here in the Pacific Northwest who were inspired by
the French movement.

The
show is Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Their
Circle: French Impressionism and the Northwest. Drawing on TAM’s own
collection and collections from other museums in the region, it chronologically
covers the development of their art from works by Impressionism’s precursors, such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille
Corot and Gustave Courbet, to masters such as Monet, Degas, Mary Cassatt and
Berthe Morisot, to American Impressionists including C.C. McKim, Clara Jane
Stephens and Fokko Tadama.

“The
purpose of this exhibition is deeply connected to the same passion that drove
the French Impressionists, to transform the way we see,” said TAM executive
director, co-curator of this show along with Margaret Bullock.

In
some of the earliest works, such as Eugène Boudin’s “The Beach at Trouville” we
see that beyond painting commonplace scenes, the important innovations were
lightening the palette and painting with dabs of color not meticulously blended
as was requiredin previous work. In Boudin’s “Washerwomen
at Trouville” we see small figures in vast landscapes rendered as simple globs
of paint with no details whatsoever, yet easily readable as people due to
positions, gestures and color.

In
works by Renoir and Monet, we see significant brightening of the palette and
lush laying-on of paint, and
with Sisley and Pissarro paint application becomes dots and dabs of color with
no blending. The rosy cheeks in Renoir’s “Heads of Two Young Girls,” which has
been shown often at TAM, fairly glow, and
the background colors are laid down with exuberant splashes of color.

Many
of the Impressionists severely cropped images as inas in Edgar Degas’
“Dancers,” painted on fan-shaped silk, while others began to paint in more
sketchy manners, the most radical of which, in this show, is Berthe Marisot’s
“Jeanne with Doll,” which looks like it could have been painted in the 21st
century because it is so loose and expressive with more concern with visual
expression than with realistic rendering.

The
American Impressionists of the Pacific Northwest are shown in a separate area
of the gallery. None are particularly well known. They clearly mastered the
Impressionist style, but were a little late arriving on that particular scene.
Since seeing the latest European art without a time delay was almost impossible
in the 19th century, most of them lagged behind the French artists,
painting in the Impressionist style at a time when Picasso and Braque and Kandinsky were
creating abstract art.

The Lakewood Playhouse is proud to present its 7th Annual
“Special” Joint Presentation with its very own Lakewood Institute of Theatre —
“Pippi Longstocking” for 8 Shows Only! The famous story by Astrid Lindgren is
adapted for the stage for an amazing adventure for the entire family!!The Show will run from October 24th through
the November 3rd and be performed on Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at
7:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm!There will
also be a Special “Pay What You Can” Performance on Wednesday, October 23rd at
7:00pm

Ticket Prices are just $15.00 Each! The show is directed by The
Lakewood Institute of Theatre’s Education Director, Deborah L. Armstrong. This Production marks a true collaboration
between the Lakewood Playhouse’s Mainstage and its Education Department as it brings
all the production elements of a Main Stage show and combines them with the
even bigger sense of wonder and adventure brought by its youth and educators!

ABOUT THE SHOW: ​ “An Adventure for the Whole Family filled
with Laughter and a Dash of Mischief”

On the outskirts of town stands a ramshackle house. It may
not seem like much ’til you peek through the railings…then, there’s a horse on
the porch, a monkey in the kitchen and a freckle faced, red-pigtailed,
whirlwind of a girl in mismatched stockings presiding over all! This is the
domain of Pippi Longstocking who is outrageously unsupervised and proud of it.
When her father sails into town just in time to rescue her from a solitary life
in the Children’s Home, she has the chance to join him in his adventurous
pirate life, but she chooses to stay. As odd as it seems, and against all the
rules, she has found a place where she belongs.

Director Krista Duval and her cast and crew
went all out to present a harrowing version of The Hound of the Baskervilles at
Centerstage, adapted by Seattle playwrights David Pichette and R. Hamilton
Wright, with an eye toward being true to Sir Conan Doyle’s original story.

The audience is transformed to England in the
1880s first of all by the elaborate set designed by Jyles Rodgers, costumes by
Jocelyne Fowler (most notably the men’s coats and hats and Beryl Stapleton’s
beautiful dresses), and lighting and sounds by, respectively, Michelle Mann and
Xandria Easterday Callahan.

The beautiful set consists of a background with
boulders and tattered hanging cloth that does not attempt to look like the
Moors but rather like draped cobwebs which creates a Halloween mood, and
moveable set pieces to represent Holmes’ London apartment and the drawing room
of Baskerville Hall, with beautiful iridescent green curtains and many period portraits.

As good theater always is, this production of The
Hound is a group effort. One drawback in this production is that the many
scene changes become a distraction that takes the audience out of the feeling
of being in another place and time. Plays with many scene changes can be the
bane and challenge of community theaters with limited budgets, but given what
they have to work with, this company handles the changes as well as any.

Dr. James Mortimer (Timothy Duval) asks Sherlock Holmes (Tom
Livingston) to investigate the death of his friend Sir Charles Baskerville (Craig
Rock) who was found dead in the Moors near Baskerville Hall in Devon, England.
Holmes is intrigued with the case because there are hints that Baskerville
might have been killed by the legendary giant hound that lives in the Moors.
But rather than going to Baskerville Hall himself, Holmes sends his companion,
Dr. Watson (Jacob Tice) to investigate.

Livingston’s performance as Holmes is a bit overly affected in the early
scenes, but he then in later scenes his acting is more realistic.

Tice, known for his outstanding roles in Tacoma Little Theatre’s
national award-winning The Pillowman, and A Few Good Men at
Lakewood Playhouse, is again outstanding as Watson, a role he plays with great
subtlety and a bit of sly humor.

Eloisa Cardona is captivating in the duel roles as Mrs. Hudson and Mrs.
Barrymore, Robin Mae Becar is likeable and engaging as the beautiful young
Beryl Stapleton and then changes convincingly in ways that can’t be explained
without spoiling the story.

Also turning in enjoyable performances are Dale Bowers as Mr. Frankland
and Duval as Dr. Mortimer.

This is a show that is ideal for the Halloween season. It is spooky and
witty, and for those who do not already know the convoluted plot it is an
intriguing whodunnit.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Local actor Tim Hoban
will appear on the Lakewood Playhouse stage as Edgar Allan Poe in An Evening
with Edgar Allan Poe Friday and Saturday, October 18th &
19th only.

Presented in the
Lakewood Playhouse’s thrust configuration with seating facing the stage as well
on both of its sides, this performance invites you into Poe’s parlor to hear
some of his most famous stories of the macabre and imagery-filled poetry.

The performance is a
revival of a very successful show created by Northwest playwright Bryan Willis
and originally directed by David Wright.

Hoban recreates an
audience with Edgar Allen Poe as he promotes a magazine called “The Stylus” and
the stories and poetry found within.

Parental
Advisory: Some of Mr. Poe’s stories might be too scary for little
ones. Parents are encouraged to read some of his stories, and poems, and decide
if the material is appropriate for their young family members.

Monday, October 7, 2019

Like Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, The Delicious Revenge of Princess Rubyslippers
by Brendan Murray is a tasty romp that appeals to audiences of all ages. Now
playing at Olympia Family Theater, directed by Pug Bujeaud, Rubyslippers
is 80 minutes of laughter.

Ruby
(Gabriela Tatone) is girl of indeterminant age. She’s bored. Her mum (Amanda
Stevens) is anything but bored. She is harried and worn out. It’s her so-called
day off and she has a gazillion things she has to do, not the least of which is
taking care of her children, Ruby and her big brother, Jake (Skylar Bastedo).
She wants more than anything for a simple five-minute break to relax without
the kids bothering her. Their friend Tom (Emily Bittrick) comes for a visit,
and Ruby to decides to hide from them. Dressed as a fairy princess with a
single red ruby slipper —the other one is missing, shades of Cinderella
—she climbs into a huge box and magically disappears into a make-believe world
peopled by her fairy godmother, the big bad wolf, the giant from Jack and
the Beanstalk, the wicked witch (all played by Stevens) and Prince Charming
(played by Bittrick, who clearly loves it when Ruby asks him to kiss her).

Jill
Carter’s set design is lovely and playful, complete with posters from popular
fairy tales and beautiful backdrops and cut-out images behind windows. Jonnita
Thompson’s costumes are smack-on exactly what you’d expect these kids and their
mum would wear. (As readers might guess from the term “mum,” this is a British
comedy, and the cast does a good job with the British accents.

from left: Emily Bittrick, Gabriela Tatone nd Skylar Bastedo

Tatone
and Bastedo are boisterous, exuberant and over-the-top funny, Bittrick is
slightly less loud and raucous and equally delightful. Stevens does a terrific
job of portraying a woman who is at her wit’s end, and she transforms nicely
into the various fairytale characters she portrays. As the giant she is
comically ridiculous with her gruff voice and posing with a spread-leg stance
and hands on hips like Mister Clean. This cast will have you falling in love
with them.

All-in-all,
Princess Rubyslippers is a less serious and more child-friendly Into the
Woods, but without music, which is unusual for Olympia Family Theater.

Bujeaud
is one of the Olympia area’s most well known and deeply respected theater professionals.
She has written, directed and/or acted in more than 150 productions and served
as Artistic Director for Theater Artists Olympia. For the past 15 years she has
headed up St. Michael’s 5th grade Shakespeare program. This is her
second show to direct for Olympia Family Theater, the previous one being The
House on Pooh Corner.

Welcome!

I get paid for reviews in newspapers that I then post here, but I do many reviews and other articles that I don't get paid for. If you enjoyed reading them, please put something in the tip jar. Everything helps - thanks!

Subscribe to my blog

About Me

I am an artist and writer living in Olympia, Washington. I write an art review column, a theater review column and arts features for the Weekly Volcano, a community theater review column for The (Tacoma) News Tribune and regular arts features for OLY ARTS (Olympia).
My published novels are: This Is Me, Debbi, David; Tupelo; The Freedom Trilogy (a three-book series consisting of The Backside of Nowhere, Return to Freedom and Visual Liberties); Reunion at the Wetside; The Wives of Marty Winters; Imprudent Zeal and Until the Dawn. I've also published a book on art, As If Art Matters. All are available on amazon.com.
I grew up in Tupelo and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have been living in the Pacific Northwest since 1988 where I am active in many progressive organizations such as PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).